Willow's Bridge
by Canima
Summary: In the year X844, a small Guild known as Willow's Bridge is on the verge of forced disbandment by the council. Tasked with garnering enough members to keep them afloat, Lav Reeves only has two months to bring their total up from seven mages to fifteen. But, as it turns out, gaining enough members is the least of the Guild's problems. (( SYOC open! ))


_Dahlia, Fiore_  
 _Willow's Bridge Guild_  
 _October 4th, X844_

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 **{** _Willow's Bridge _**}**

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"Lav, for the _very_ last time - no, you absolutely can _not_ take over as Guild master."

It was a familiar tongue lashing going around the family-run Guild as of late. Lavey adored the place, and after the loss of his father - the previous Guild master - a bit over a year ago, he had decided to do what he believed the older man would have wanted and taken his place as head of the Guild.

The caveat to the whole thing - or, well, one of them, at least - was his age. Seventeen-year-olds didn't really run Guilds. Couldn't really be masters. Perhaps, in the distant past, that would have bean a much easier feat to accomplish, but... now, with all of the regulations and laws placed on the Guilds remaining in Fiore, it was nigh on impossible. Generally, there were more members of each Guild, so finding a new master was easy, but even with his mother's new girlfriend, their grand total of mages was only a whopping seven. Not including nieces and nephews and non-mage relatives.

It seemed that the Reeves family was a bit too inviting for their own good. Non-mages didn't count in the member roster for the Guild, and even less toward a Guild master. Not to mention the fact that any Guild with less than fifteen mages was in constant peril of being shut down entirely. It was a rule put in place mainly to send those mages on to more established Guilds and keep the population relatively even, because there was a very notable decline in the birth of mages in the last century.

"Mama, this was Papa's dream. It was his own Mama's dream before him. I don't want them to shut it down, and no one else even wants to step up. Beck is busy with his wife and four children, Ro isn't a magic-user, and Percy is lazy!" the teen argued - against his better judgment and sense of self-preservation. The fiery light in his mother's deep brown eyes - much darker than his own silvery gray - was enough to send the boy stepping back slightly. Even if she stood a handful of inches shorter than he did. (He got his lankiness from his dad.)

The Percy in question - his older sister, slightly shorter than him (about five-foot-seven, give or take) - threw a sandal at him. It smacked him right in the back of his curly head.

"I am not lazy - I'm _selective_ in my participation," the smartass in question replied with a self-righteous smirk. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that mother here doesn't even want to keep the Guild running in the first place. They've been threatening to shut us down for years. Dad had to argue with the council almost constantly to let them allow us to even stay as an establishment here."

Just as Lav was beginning to step forward to retaliate, their mother stepped in.

Mama Reeves - or June, as she was called by everyone else in the city of Dahlia - was small, but she was mighty, and even with her two most stubborn and combative children, she could silence them with a simple narrowing of her eyes. "Neither of you are fit to be the master of this Guild. Your father and your grandparents worked too hard to throw it away on two hotheaded teenagers," she scolded, and both Lav and Percy looked away, shame coloring their freckled cheeks even darker.

"However," she went on, enunciating every syllable to get their attention back on her. "Lav, I've been thinking. In fact, Elia and I have talked about it many times before..." She gave her girlfriend a small smile - Lav remembered not liking that they began dating around two months ago, but Elia and his parents had been friends for many years, and his father had jokingly commented, _Whoever dies last has to marry that woman._ After all, she made the _best_ apple pies, and she was actually pretty sweet when you really got down to it. Besides, she made June happy, and Lav couldn't help the sappy smile that formed on his lips whenever he saw them being all cute together.

Percy fake gagged.

Lav stuck his tongue out at her.

"If you can recruit at least eight mages for us by the end of the year, I will become the Guild master," June finished, and it took several long moments for Lav to realize what he was hearing.

"Wait," he began, holding up a finger as though that would actually stop anyone from talking. "We don't have to disband...?"

Elia laughed then - she must have seen the excitement beginning to course through the teen as he realized what was going on. "No. Not if you can get those mages so we can have the numbers and the council will get off our backs about it. They've been gracious for the past year, after Merric's death, but they've reached the end of that grace period."

And honestly, by that point, Lav had already bolted out of the front door of the Guild to go on his recruitment spree. Because the time he had was precious, and he knew he had to make the most of that opportunity.

June leaned on the bar and smiled, fiddling with a stray vine that her late husband had grown there over a year ago. "He's so lively after being as sick as he was," she remarked, brown eyes soft and distant. Percy gave an aggressive sort of snort, clenching her fists tightly enough that her nails cut into her palms.

"God, he's _just like Dad_."

Their mother let out a longsuffering, knowing sigh through her nose and met her daughter's matching brown gaze. "Yes. He is."

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 **{** _Willow's Bridge_ **}**

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Lavey had always adored the way their Guild was structured. Plant life was _everywhere_ \- in fact, the Guild itself was at least ninety percent made of vines and roots and crisscrossing branches that Merric and his mother had built up to make up the building on their own... except for the few odd plants that Lav had added later. He hoped that they didn't mind - that the flowers he placed along the bridge of winding willow trees that connected their little outcrop on the mountain to the city of Dahlia. It was enclosed, protected from weather on all sides. He was walking through a tunnel of roots and trunks and branches that interlocked tightly enough to withstand the test of time. Lav had always, ever since he was a tiny child, imagined them petrifying over thousands of years for future archaeologists to dig up and discover. Perhaps everything in the Guild would be safely tucked away inside, untouched by anything except time.

The walk wasn't too long - the bridge was only about a quarter mile - but he was panting slightly by the time he got across. Laying in bed, doing absolutely nothing for three weeks would definitely do that to a person.

Nevertheless, Lav was a go-getter and considered himself quite the people person. A little lingering illness wouldn't bring him down.

"Hello, ma'am, would you like to join the Willow's Bridge Guild? We're in need of members, and-" He launched into he spiel toward the first mage he saw, but the older woman didn't spare him a second glance. So he resorted to other, more dramatic, tactics for the next few. Because Lavey Reeves was nothing if not dramatic.

"We have a cooking mage and she makes the best apple pies and quiches _ever_!"

"Free flowers for life!"

"Jesus Christ, sir, your bicep is as big as my head! You know, I'm single right now-"

Okay, so that last one wasn't quite business-y, but he did get to feel a giant man's bicep, which would have been the highlight of the day had his mother not agreed to be the Guild master if he got enough members to join.

He didn't have any takers yet, but he remained hopeful.

He still had two months, after all.

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 **{** _Willow's Bridge_ **}**

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 **Characters mentioned by name -  
[**descriptions of personality are mostly exaggerated satire, but still ring scarily true for the characters. **]  
[** _all of the Reeves children have wildly curly hair._ **]**

 **Merric Reeves (father, deceased at age 49, plant magic.)  
** _A tall, lanky man - about 5'11" - and weighing somewhere around 170lbs.  
_ _He had pale skin, light silvery-gray eyes, and dark brown hair.  
He was a kind, jolly man who would take no shit from the council, but was ever the softie on his family._

 **June Reeves (mother, age 47, light magic.)  
** _A short woman, standing in at about 5'1" or so and weighing around 145lbs.  
She has deeply tanned skin, dark brown hair, and brown_ _eyes._  
 _June is a strict woman, but she has the best intentions and loves her family deeply._

 **Beck Reeves (eldest child, age 30, light** **magic.)**  
 _A tall man. He stands at 6'1" and weighs about 190lbs.  
He has medium-tanned skin, dark brown hair, and brown eyes.  
Beck is a perpetually stressed father of four and house husband, but he is downright jovial when he gets sleep._

 **"Ro" Reeves (second eldest child, age 27, no** **magic.)**  
 _A man of average height, about 5'8" or so, and weighs about 165lbs.  
He has pale skin, dark gray eyes, and dark brown hair.  
Ro was an adventurous, rebellious child that grew into a decent adult, if not a questionable influence._

 **Percy Reeves (second youngest child, age 20, fire magic.)  
** _A tall, lanky girl, standing in at 5'7" and weighing about 115lbs.  
She has deeply tanned skin, dark brown hair, and brown eyes.  
A rebellious, flirtatious young woman that followed Ro's footsteps carefully growing up. June is still mad about it._

 **"Lavey" Reeves (youngest child, age 17, plant magic.)**  
 _A boy of average height and long limbs, standing in at 5'8" and weighing 140lbs.  
He has medium-tanned skin, light silvery-blue eyes, and dark brown hair.  
Lav is a flirty teen with good intentions and bad execution of plans. He's not the brightest crayon in the box, but he tries hard.  
He is the most likely of the group to accidentally piss off the wrong person._

 **Elia Blue (family friend and June Reeves' current girlfriend, age 48, cooking magic.)  
** _A tall, broad woman - standing in at 5'10" and weighing 180lbs.  
She has pale skin, reddish blonde hair, and green eyes.  
A sweet, friendly woman in spite of her intimidating figure. She exudes warmth and gives amazing hugs.  
_

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 **{** _Willow's Bridge_ **}**

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 **An -** _It has been s o very long! I've missed you guys very much.  
_ And I am so excited for this story.  
The only real rules I have for it are as follows -

 _1) PM me for the form._  
 _2) Only submit one character at first._  
 _3) Be diverse and interesting with your character!_  
 _4) Be very highly detailed.  
5) I would prefer your character not be related to any of the canon FT characters._  
 _6) Have tons of fun and don't stress!_  
 _And if your character is accepted, review at least fairly often on the story. I'm also a big fan of plotting and talking about potential storylines for individual characters, so please feel free to approach me!_

 _I hope to hear from you soon!  
Love,  
Canima_


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